TUMBA - MADŽARI, SKOPJE

The oldest archaeological findings indicate that the antique settlement of Tumba, near Madžari, dates from the early Stone Age - the Neolithic - which is characterized as a time of harmony and welfare, a time when culture lived its upsurge and when the feminine principle was predominant in human conscience. In the matriarchy, as the Neolithic is more commonly referred to, the woman was the pillar of society, and therefore, the main deity and protector of the people in those times was the Great Goddess, Mother Earth.

The archaeological site of Tumba is located between the Skopje suburbs of Madžari II and Čento, near the motorway Skopje - Kumanovo - Veles. The archaeological excavations made until now have explored a surface of about 1400 m². During the research, it was established that it is a multi-layered settlement with a cultural layer of three meters, in which there are three separate horizons of living from the Mid Neolithic. Ruins and foundation of seven houses (dwellings) and a shrine have been discovered. They have a rectangular or a square base, and are built of massive wooden material and mud. Almost all of the found constructions have remnants of fire-places, stoves and numerous objects, decorative plastics, ceramic vessels of different shapes and patterns of specific symbolic (rain, water, wheat). Apart from this, the cult plastic, which was found, is of specific interest, particularly the anthropomorphic one. Among the objects of this type, the most interesting is the terracotta sacrificial object representing the Great Mother - protector of fertility, kept today in the Museum of Macedonia in Skopje. According to the way it was manufactured, it represents a unique cult object, different from the rest found in the Balkans dating from the Neolithic. Its uniqueness is in the fact that it is composed of two parts: the upper one is with anthropomorphic representation, and the lower one with architectural contents.

D. Kareva

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